Some marker dyes for locating steroids eluted from sephadex LH-20 columns.

As a routine internal calibration system, the use of marker dyes is easier, faster, and more reliable for precisely locating steroids separated by column chromatography on Sephadex LH-20 than is the customary method, pre-calibration by radioactivity. Certain azobenzene and azotoluene dyes are suitable for signaling the effluent positions of various steroids of clinical interest. The elution behavior of this group of dyes is described for two nonpolar solvent systems commonly used in steroid chromatography; however, the technique is generally applicable and this group of dyes may be generally useful as visual markers.